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And you thought the The View could get crazy on-screen (Joy Behar and Meghan McCain, we’re looking at you). This pull-back-the-curtain story of almost two decades of the groundbreaking talk show delivers ... This is everything a behind-the-scenes book should be—dishy, surprising, and written with the unprecedented help of those who lived it.

With unprecedented access to nearly every host, Setoodeh paints a vivid and informative picture of the highs and lows of the past 20 years from several different perspectives ... With a random array of hosts and plenty of drama to go around, Setoodeh manages to peel back the composed facade viewers see on their screens in order to focus on raw feelings and teetering emotions of those closely involved with The View. Ladies Who Punch is an exciting read that proves there’s always a little soap opera even if a show presents itself as news.

No actual fists are thrown...but this behind-the-scenes takedown of the daytime juggernaut is determined to prove that heated words pack a wallop. Author Ramin Setoodeh, a veteran entertainment reporter and editor, gives Barbara Walters props for creating a multigenerational platform for women, but quickly glosses over that accomplishment, painting the legendary broadcaster as a terrorizing, hopelessly out-of-touch egomaniac who never got over not casting herself as the show’s moderator ... Setoodeh’s decades of covering the program pays off with the kind of details you normally don’t get from the hush-hush world of show business. But his obsession with deep-dish gossip overshadows any attempt to analyze what has made the show so popular and influential.